Albertsons in West Linn and Lake Oswego to be replaced with Haggen

Safeway and Albertsons merge and sell stores to Haggens

Ji An, Staff Reporter|March 11, 2015

West+Linn+and+Lake+Oswego+Albertsons+stores+are+being+replaced+with+Haggen+grocery+stores+during+the+first+week+of+March.+After+the+merge+with+Safeway%2C+Albertsons+was+required+to+sell+many+of+its+stores+in+the+Willamette+Valley+to+Haggen+in+order+to+prevent+a+monopoly.

Brittany Park

West Linn and Lake Oswego Albertsons stores are being replaced with Haggen grocery stores during the first week of March. After the merge with Safeway, Albertsons was required to sell many of its stores in the Willamette Valley to Haggen in order to prevent a monopoly.

“Our mission is to become a shopper’s favorite local supermarket,” Dennis McCoy, Public Relations Manager of Albertsons, said. “And we realized merging with Safeway was the best way to do that.”

Starting in March, the Boones Ferry and Blankenship road Albertsons will no longer be available to shoppers. Instead, they’ll have the opportunity to shop at Haggen. This transition of stores will affect students in different ways at West Linn. Some students react to this transition in a variety of different ways.

“That’s really sad. I love Albertsons. It’s right by my house, it’s walking distance and it’s convenient. I don’t want it to change!” Kali Burkhartzmeyer, freshman said.

“Food is food. You can find the same type of food you’d find in Albertsons at any other grocery store,” Kayla Gadd, junior said.

Since Aug. 2014, Albertsons and Safeway have been collaborating to merge their two companies together with only one intention in mind: to be a customer’s favorite local supermarket. And after five months of work, the two companies were able merge but encountered one issue. The government realized that after the two companies merged, they had potential to monopolize the market and become unhealthy competition.

“Albertsons and Safeway are selling many of their stores to us because the government pointed out that they couldn’t have too many of their stores in one city because then they have the potential to monopolize the market,” Deborah Pleva,Haggen Public Relations Manager, said. As a result, government officials ordered Albertsons and Safeway to sell 146 of their stores on the West Coast to another supermarket, Haggen.

On the other hand, Haggen officials are excited to grow from 18 stores to 164 and 2,000 employees to 10,000. They will bring themselves to more communities and promise to provide more opportunities to local farmers.

“We definitely give back to the communities we serve and we try to support regional farms and local food producers,” Pleva said. “If there’s somebody in West Linn who grows good produce, they’ll have a better chance of seeing it on Haggen shelves than on Safeway or Albertsons shelves.”